Friday, December 23, 2011

I Can't Be Hypnotized...Malarkey!

I've noticed that even seasoned professional Hypnotherapists will frequently tell their clients "Just go with it. You're over analyzing the process." That's like nails on a chalk board for me.

Everyone enters the state that is typically associated with hypnosis at least twice a day: once when they're falling asleep, and then again when they're waking up in the morning. It's called the hypnagogic state. Involuntary muscle jerking usually happens during this state. Ever feel like you're just on the edge of sleep, you're mind is wandering, you know you're awake and then all of a sudden you're leg twitches and you realize that you were in fact sleeping? If you had a hypnotist there, they would have been able to help you maintain that state and provide you with suggestions for change.

The key for the hypnotherapist is to help the client into that state artificially, but as we all learn differently, getting the client to that state is different for all of us. If a hypnotherapist is telling you that you're overanalyzing something... find another hypnotherapist. I don't care if they've been in business for 50 years. Find another hypnotist.

In a previous post, I addressed the types of relationship expressions known as Physical and Emotional. The other half of that expression is our suggestibility, or the way we learn. In that post, I addressed the Emotional type's need to analyze information before their subconscious is able to accept and assimilate it. The Physical type is able to accept direct information at face value. This isn't necessarily a better trait to have, it's just not the same as an Emotional type.

There is a 3rd type of suggestibility. This is the Somnambulist. That's a fancy word for "sleep walker", prime candidates for stage hypnosis.

If your hypnotherapist is telling you that you're overanalyzing, it's because he or she has made their living off of Physical types and Somnambulists - over 50% of the population of the world. That's quite a bit of clientele. But instead of accepting that you learn differently than their usual clientele, they put the impetus on you to conform to what they know. And because you analyze all information, it might be natural for your subconscious to then infer that the this hypnotist is telling you that there is something wrong with you. When someone tells you that there's something wrong with you, does that make you trust them more? Are you even comfortable around them? Chances are, probably not.

Let's go a little deeper into this rabbit hole. There is a chemical that is found in abundance in the brain of a nursing mother and child - it's called oxytocin. It's been called the "trust" chemical. It's production helps regulate the circadian rhythm, that rhythm which helps you sleep at night and stay awake during the day. It's also produced by monks and nuns who meditate for long hours, and since meditation is self hypnosis it can also be found in hypnosis clients at the time of the hypnagogic state. If you are on high alert, i.e. mistrustful, then you can't sleep. So if you don't trust your hypnotist, or feel comfortable around him, how are you supposed to slip into the hypnogogic state, that moment just before sleep, if you're around him?

If you're hypnotherapist is telling you that you're over analyzing - don't trust him/her. Find another hypnotist - case closed!